Tiny Clay Head May Have Been Used As Ancient Effigy

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A recently discovered miniature clay head with eerie eyes may
have been an effigy used by a shaman more than 1,000 years ago,
researchers say.

The head, which was discovered near Ebbert Spring in Franklin
Country, Penn., has shells for eyes and tiny holes across its top
and sides that may have been used for feathers or hair. A cavity
at the base of the neck indicates that it was likely mounted on a
stick or wand.

"It might have been used in a ceremony by a shaman of some sort,"
said lead archaeologist Ronald Powell, of the Society for
Pennsylvania Archaeology. Shell is a symbolically important
object among Native American cultures and Powell believes that
the use of it for eyes, combined with feathers, add weight to the
idea that the artifact had a shamanistic use .

He pointed out that viewing the eyes in the outdoor light leaves
quite an impression.

"It does give kind of an eerie glow from the incised shell eyes —
you have sort of a dusty evening light," Powell told LiveScience.
"It would be kind of awestruck for whoever was being subjected to
it."

Finding a precise date for the head is difficult, but based on
pottery found nearby, Powell estimates it was created around A.D.
900.

Ebbert Spring has been occupied by humans for about 11,000 years,
Powell said. The availability of water at the site attracted deer
and they, in turn, attracted human hunters, suggesting the site
was used during winter.

"It would be sort of a wintering type campsite, at least through
the months of August and March probably," said Powell, who
detailed his finding in the latest issue of the journal
Pennsylvanian Archaeologist.

Enigmatic effigy?

Two researchers not affiliated with the dig told Live Science
that it is an interesting artifact but one that is difficult to
interpret. [ See a photo
of the effigy ]

"It's a significant
object , but it's a very rare object," said Kurt Carr, senior
curator of archaeology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, who
pointed out that the iconography is similar to that used by
Iroquois people who settled in northeast North America.

"Heads and faces are a characteristic of Iroquoian peoples — it
seems to be part of their art motif if you will," he said.
However "this doesn't seem to be Iroquoian; it's awfully far
south."

Michael Stewart, an anthropology professor at Temple University
in Philadelphia, said that the head may date to more recent
times.

Across the Northeast, "you tend to see them [effigy heads] most
frequently after A.D. 1300 and much more as you get into late
prehistoric times and when European colonists are encountering
Native peoples."

Stewart cautions that more peer-reviewed information about the
soil and artifacts at Ebbert Spring are needed before any
conclusions can be made about the date and purpose of the
head.

"Whether it was the personal property of a religious specialist
like a shaman or whether it was the ornament or an object used by
an individual within that community is something that (based on
the evidence so far) I don't think we can say," Stewart noted.

Shell eyes

The key to answering questions about the head may be in the white
shell eyes.

"If you look at what is being recorded historically amongst
living native people during early historic times, shell plays a
very special symbolic role," Stewart said. "You have shell beads
being made by different peoples. You have an acknowledgment that
the color white is symbolically important — it's
the color
of life ."